To begin training your Smithing skill, you will first need to understand and practice smelting: the method used to make the bars needed to forge weapons and armour. One way to do this is to mine the ores yourself, through use of the Mining skill.

Another way is to trade ores and/or already smelted bars with other players. This means that you will be paying for someone else's work, but it is something to consider if you wish to master the art of Smithing more quickly.

Getting Smithing Experience

Basic Smithing

Most Smithing XP is gained through smelting ore into bars, then turning those bars into items.

Smelting

Smithing interface

Once you have your ores and you have used the map to find yourself a furnace, you need to smelt them into bars. On the minimap in game, the furnace icon appears as such: . Simply use the ore of your choice with the furnace and you will be presented with the Make-X interface shown on the left.

Each bar that it is possible to smith from the ore you have selected is displayed here. If a bar is displayed with a gold border, this means you have the Smithing level required to smelt the ore. If the bar is greyed out, you do not have the Smithing level or items required. Clicking on the bar will give you details about what you are missing.

Now all you have to do is select the item you wish to make from this new menu, and your character will smelt it. It is worth noting that, it is possible to make items in bulk by using the +/- buttons in the bottom-right corner of the interface.

You can also use Magic to smelt bars. The level 43 spell Superheat Item allows the caster to smelt ores, without the use of a furnace. This spell requires 4 fire runes and 1 nature rune. You must be on the Standard Spellbook to cast this spell.

If you have these runes, go to the Magic tab in your Ability Book and select the spell. The option will then change to 'Cast superheat item on...'. Select the ore you wish to use (generally the primary ore) and click it to cast the spell.

It is important to point out that if you use Superheat Item on iron ore, the chance of smelting is 100% and you will still get the Smithing experience.

Now you have your ores and you have used the map to find yourself a furnace, now you need to smelt.

Notes

~ Blurite ore can only be smelted after completing The Knight's Sword* At level 15, iron ore has a 50% success rate of being smelted. This chance increases by 1% with each Smithing level, up to an 80% chance at level 45 Smithing.** Elemental ore can only be smelted, on and after completion of the Elemental Workshop I.++ Bane ore can only be smelted after completion of Ritual of the Mahjarrat. You must mine the bane ore; attune it to either abyssal demons, basilisks, dragons or wallasalkis; then smelt it at a furnace. All bane items are untradeable.# Requires the completion of The Brink of Extinction.

Forging

Now you have obtained some bars, you can turn them into items. To smith the bars into items, you have to find an anvil. These appear as a symbol on the map. Click on the anvil to open up the Make-x interface. This will tell you what items you can make given the items in your inventory.

To smith, you will need bars of the metal type you wish to fashion and a hammer, which you will already have in your tool belt.

Other Types of Smithing

Dragonfire Shield

The Dragonfire shield is an astounding piece of equipment that enhances the natural abilities of the Anti-dragon shield to enable it to absorb and later unleash the power of a dragon's fiery breath. To make a Dragonfire shield you will need a Smithing level of 90.

There are two components to the Dragonfire shield: the anti-dragon shield and a draconic visage. Draconic visages are rare drops from adult black, iron, steel, mithril and frost dragons, the King Black Dragon, and Skeletal Wyverns. To smith them into a Dragonfire shield you will need to take them to an anvil. Use the Draconic visage on the anvil and you will find yourself in possession of a Dragonfire shield and 2000 shiny new Smithing experience.

Note that this may take you some time, so it's advisable not to click away until you have the dragonfire shield in your inventory.

If you don't have the Smithing level to make the shield yourself, you can take your Anti-dragon shield and Draconic visage to Oziach in Edgeville, who will fuse them into a Dragonfire shield in exchange for 1,250,000 coins.

Spirit Shields

When you complete Summer's End you are rewarded with a Spirit shield, which can be repaired with some elusive sigils to create even more potent shields. If you have a Prayer level of 90 and a Smithing level of 85, you may well be interested in doing so. Click here to read more about Smithing enhanced spirit shields.

Godswords

The godsword is a weapon of unimaginable power that was shattered during the last great battle of the God Wars. If you descend into the eternal warfare of the God Wars Dungeon you may be lucky enough to find some or all of the three shards of that fabled blade.

The three parts of the blade can be fixed together in any order to reforge the weapon that the gods once fought for control over. This requires a Smithing level of 80, and will grant you 100 experience for joining any two pieces together (so completing the godsword will earn you 200 Smithing experience).

Note that this may take you some time, so it's advisable not to click away until you have the completed pieces in your inventory.

The final part of the weapon is the hilt. During the god wars, four hilts were designed for the weapon - one dedicated to each of the major gods: Armadyl, Bandos, Saradomin and Zamorak. These hilts can be attached and removed from the blade freely. The only effect the hilts have is that the special attack changes.

Barbarian Smithing

Unknown to common men is the fact that almost all of the spears in Gielinor are made by the most cunning of smiths among the barbarian people. A few, of course, have made their way to Karamja, where these exceptionally well-made weapons are a favourite of the tribespeople.

Otto Godblessed is more than willing to teach diligent students the art of Smithing a spear, and those that excel might even learn the art of fighting with the barbarian's traditional one-handed spear: the hasta.

To smith a spear or a hasta you must use a wood of similar quality to the metal. As the whole of a spear or hasta is made at the same time, you must have a metal bar and some logs in your inventory. Simply use the bar on the anvil outside Otto's hut or in the Barbarian Village to make a spear or hasta.

Note that you will not be able to make a hasta until you demonstrate to Otto that you can make a spear.

Boosting Experience Gain

The small, medium, large and huge fallen stars can boost your XP gain depending on your level. To activate your bonus XP, you must click the star. Once the bonus XP has been added to your bonus XP pool, the star is removed from your inventory.

Each individual item in the blacksmith's set (apron, boots, gloves, helmet and top) grant 1% extra XP each. A complete set will grant an additional 1% XP bringing the total to 6% for the whole set.

Players in a clan with a citadel will find that contributing to their clan's resource pool will earn bonus XP that can be used on the surface world.

Training Hints and Tips

Remember that you can use the right-click 'Smelt X' option, this saves a lot of clicking.

When smelting a large number of ores, use a furnace near a bank, such as the furnace in Al Kharid. This will save a lot of walking time and will not disrupt your routine too greatly. This method is also useful for Smithing and locations of anvils.

Making and selling steel bars is fast experience and there is good profit to be made. However, making Cannonballs brings an even bigger profit, as they are always easily sold.

Once you reach the level to smith mithril and higher, you may be able to buy the bars at a price where you will be able to smith it and sell for a profit, without spending time mining the ores.

Smithing experience is 'per bar', so items requiring the same amount of bars will yield the same amount of experience.

An orange Spicy stew has a random chance to increase your Smithing level by up to 6 levels (or decrease it by the same).

Useful Items

With iron, the chance of smelting success is anything from 50% to 80%. Wearing a Ring of forging will give you a 100% chance of successfully smelting 140 bars of iron, after which the ring will break.

If you have a Smithing level of 55 and a Dungeoneering level of 55, you may be able to purchase a scroll of efficiency from the rewards trader of Daemonheim. Once the scroll is used, it will disappear, giving you the following permanent effect: whenever you smith an item that requires three or more bars to create, there is a chance that you will retain a bar. This chance is dependent on the bars that you are smithing:

Bronze - 50% chance of retaining a bronze bar

Iron - 25% chance of retaining an iron bar

Steel - 20% chance of retaining a steel bar

Mithril - 10% chance of retaining a mithril bar

Adamant - 8% chance of retaining an adamant bar

Runite - 5% chance of retaining a rune bar

Frequently Asked Questions

No, you may only buy them from the halberd shop at the Tyras Camp, after completing the Regicide quest. White halberds, however, may be purchased from Sir Vyvin in Falador, provided you have completed Wanted! and achieved the rank of Master (killed 1300 black knights).

10. Do I successfully smelt iron ore into bars more often as my level goes up?

Yes. Although there is a constant 50% chance of smelting iron at level 15 Smithing or lower, it becomes more and more likely after level 15, increasing to an 80% chance at level 45. The chance of smelting iron ore does not increase after this point.